Grenade kills two in Moldova during attempted cigarette theft

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ATTENTION EDITORS - VISUAL COVERAGE OF SCENES OF INJURY OR DEATH Investigators carry the body of a victim, killed by a grenade blast in a shop, in central Chisinau, Moldova March 20, 2018. REUTERS/Viktor Dimitrov TEMPLATE OUT

CHISINAU (Reuters) - Two people were killed in a shop in Moldova’s capital on Tuesday when a grenade brandished by a man seeking to avoid paying for cigarettes exploded, police said.

The small former Soviet republic has been locked in a frozen conflict with the pro-Moscow breakaway region of Transdniestria since the early 1990s, but accidents linked to the misuse of military ordnance are rare.